Teaching digital skills in higher education: diagnosis and training possibilities

Abstract

The current moment we live in has brought new and urgent challenges to Higher Education teachers, making the acquisition of digital skills essential, especially for the use of virtual learning environments and online technologies. In this sense, based on the DigCompEdu CheckIn self-assessment questionnaire, validated by Dias-Trindade, Moreira and Nunes (2019), the main objective of the research presented in this text is to evaluate the digital skills of Higher Education teachers at the State University of Bahia ( UNEB), based on their perceptions. The quantitative methodological approach emphasizes the teachers' perception of their digital skills in three dimensions: professional skills, pedagogical skills and students' skills and involved 210 UNEB teachers. The results allow us to conclude that teachers have, globally, a moderate level of digital proficiency - level B1 -Integrators- with the dimensions pedagogical competences and students' competences being those where teachers present more weaknesses, highlighting, in the first dimension, the questions related to digital assessment and in the second dimension the responsible use of technologies. The results therefore show the need for teachers to increase their level of digital proficiency through continuing education, especially in the highlighted dimensions.